105-464: Smash! was a weekly British comic book , published initially by Odhams Press and subsequently by IPC Magazines , from 5 February 1966 to 3 April 1971. After 257 issues it merged into Valiant . During 1967 and 1968 Smash! was part of Odhams' Power Comics line, notable for its publication of American superhero strips. During this period, alongside British humour strips, Smash! included black-and-white superhero reprints originally published in
210-821: A fanzine style publication, before, in 1989, becoming the biggest-selling comic in the country. Based upon bad taste, crude language, crude sexual innuendo, and the parodying of strips from The Dandy (among them Black Bag – the Faithful Border Bin Liner , a parody of The Dandy's Black Bob series about a Border Collie ), the popularity of Viz depended entirely upon a variant of Sixties counter-culture; and it promptly inspired similarly themed titles, including Smut , Spit! , Talking Turkey , Elephant Parts , Gas , Brain Damage , Poot! , UT and Zit , all of which failed to achieve Viz' s longevity and folded, while Viz remained one of
315-439: A book, except that they were somewhat shorter and that typically the story was serialised over many weekly issues in order to maintain sales. These serial stories could run to hundreds of instalments if they were popular. And to pad out a successful series, writers would insert quite extraneous material such as the geography of the country in which the action was occurring, so that the story would extend into more issues. Plagiarism
420-646: A boy who doesn't know his own strength. Debuted around issue #29, lasting until around issue #104; also appeared in the 1970 Smash! annual. The initial lineup of strips mixed humour and adventure freely, with the comedic Ronnie Rich featured on the cover of the first issue. There were typically a dozen British humour strips in each of Smash! 's first 162 issues. The initial lineup of humour strips included three originally by Leo Baxendale — The Man From B.U.N.G.L.E. , Bad Penny , and Grimly Feendish — as well Percy's Pets by Mac ( Stanley McMurtry ); The Nervs by Graham Allen; Ronnie Rich by Gordon Hogg; Queen of
525-581: A boy with a magic television set who can bring the characters in the programmes out from the TV screen into his world. The comic debuted with issue #19 (11 June 1966). The Rubber Man by Ken Mennell and Alfredo Marculeta Superhero strip about an elastic superhero in conflict with his arch-enemy Doctor Fear, it debuted around issue #19. The strip occasionally crossed over with Don Starr feature in Terrific . Tuffy McGrew by Graham Allen Humour strip about
630-583: A comic for older boys, it also held appeal for teenage and even adult readers. In the 1960s IPC began to source comic art from Spain , mainly for financial reasons. This trend was continued through to the launch of 2000 AD . Carlos Ezquerra is the most notable Spanish artist to have worked in British comics, having worked on both Battle and 2000 AD , and is credited with the creation of the look of Judge Dredd . Star Wars Weekly , published by Marvel UK, launched in 1977, lasted until 1986. In 1982 Eagle
735-404: A comic notably grimmer in style than its competitor. Battle's success led to IPC launching another, similarly styled title, Action , which became a success too but also became controversial, due to its violent content, such as a front cover illustration which appeared to show armed children beating up a helpless police officer. Complaints about its tone eventually led to questions being asked in
840-549: A consequence of absorbing Pow! and then Fantastic , Smash! inherited some of their strips and characters: Smash! featured the Power Comics logo on its cover for 100 issues, until #143 (26 October 1968); it was quietly dropped the week Smash! absorbed Fantastic to become the last surviving title in the line. On 1 January 1969 Odhams Press Ltd ceased operations and Smash! was thereafter published by IPC Magazines Ltd (an IPC subsidiary formed during 1968). The title
945-454: A contract with Southernprint Ltd of Poole in Dorset in time to maintain publication. On 14 September 1968, with issue 137, the title merged with Pow! (which had previously absorbed Wham ), becoming Smash! and Pow! . Later on 2 November, with issue 144, it merged with Fantastic (which had previously absorbed Terrific ), becoming Smash and Pow incorporating Fantastic . As
1050-566: A factory. Ronnie Rich by Gordon Hogg About the richest kid in the world, who stands to inherit a fortune if only he can get rid of the money he's got. Each week Ronnie spent his last penny, in some reckless or extravagant way, only to have his scheme backfire and make him richer than ever. He never did get his hands on the fortune. Queen of the Seas by Ken Reid The story of the Buoyant Queen and its two-man crew, Enoch and Bert,
1155-518: A five-issue series of Battle Action , with each issue featuring two complete stories. After World War II , the UK was intent on promoting homegrown publishers, and thus banned the direct importation of American periodicals, including comic books. As a result, U.S. comic books typically arrived in the UK as ballast on ships. Although the comics-reading public in the UK was not always able to get reliable supplies of American comics, it has always enjoyed
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#17328008783141260-495: A fortnightly or monthly schedule. The two most popular British comics , The Beano and The Dandy , were released by DC Thomson in the 1930s. By 1950 the weekly circulation of both reached two million. Explaining the enormous popularity of comics in British popular culture during this period, Anita O’Brien, director curator at London's Cartoon Museum , states: "When comics like The Beano and Dandy were invented back in
1365-510: A giant pre-decimal One Penny coin (the coin suggesting the connection with the proverb from which the character's name originated). Grimly Feendish by Leo Baxendale About a creepy but amusing comic book villain whose goal is world domination, which he attempts to achieve using various monsters and outrageous plot devices such as exploding treacle. Percy's Pets by Mac ( Stanley McMurtry ) A small plump schoolboy who fills his family home with an exotic collection of pets, thereby causing
1470-412: A group of workers running a factory. Allocated two pages, it followed the same formula as Baxendale's strip Georgie's Germs from Wham! . The Nervs was drawn by Ken Reid in its final months during 1968–69. Under Reid's direction, The Nervs turned into an extremely surreal, even visceral, strip; achieving a rare level of hilarity and bawdiness, in a subversive presentation of comical horror – and in
1575-508: A limited range of football-based comic strips. In British comics history, there are some extremely long-running publications such as The Beano and The Dandy published by D. C. Thomson & Co. , a newspaper company based in Dundee , Scotland. The Dandy began in 1937 and The Beano in 1938. The Beano is still going today while The Dandy ceased print publication in 2012. The Boys' Own Paper , another long-running publication which
1680-553: A major contribution to Smash! , after March 1969, but only because the closure of Wham! freed him to work on Smash! instead. Initially, Baxendale was asked only to create the Bad Penny strip, and to give Grimly Feendish (a character from his Eagle Eye, Junior Spy strip then running in Wham! ) a strip of his own. Wallace also had Baxendale draw the covers for the first three issues, #1 featuring Ronnie Rich and #2–3 starring
1785-592: A not very subtle ploy to boost its circulation and sales. Another early strip based on the spy craze of the Sixties, though not featured in Smash #1, was the humour strip Danger Mouse , about a mouse secret agent, which debuted in issue #3 and ran until the summer of 1967. For most of the Odhams years, Smash! was essentially a humour and superhero comic, with few traditional adventure strips. Notable adventure series in
1890-540: A number of new publishers who are specifically targeting this area, including Classical Comics and Self Made Hero , the latter having an imprint focused on manga adaptations of the works of Shakespeare. This highlights another recent change, as there has been an increase in British original English-language manga . Self Made Hero's 'Manga Shakespeare' imprint draws on talent discovered in Tokyopop 's UK/Irish version of Rising Stars of Manga , including members of
1995-506: A pair of oafs with a love/hate relationship (mostly hate). Space Jinx by Brian Lewis A boy in a metal spacesuit who flies around outer space, bringing disaster wherever he goes. The Tellybugs by Walter Thorburn and George Parlett, with later contributions by Cyril Price About a crew of tiny creatures wreaking havoc inside the Goggs family's television set. Parlett was known for drawing Young Marvelman for L. Miller & Son in
2100-425: A predictable degree of comic chaos for his long-suffering mum and dad. Animals include a parrot, a tortoise, a white mouse, and a hedgehog; as well as (from time to time) such zoo animals as an elephant, a giraffe, a hippopotamus, a snake, and an ape. The Nervs by Graham Allen and later by Ken Reid A group of little characters inhabiting a schoolboy called Fatty, running his body like a group of workers running
2205-595: A range of weekly titles was being published by 1975. So much so that in 1976 the parent company briefly published a minimal amount of new material specifically for the UK market in Captain Britain . The American reprint material proved to be more successful and continued to appear into the 1980s, at which stage Marvel UK also began diversifying into home-produced original material, both UK-originated strips featuring American created characters such as Captain Britain,
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#17328008783142310-507: A repulsive or horrible nature; in such a way that the work as a whole would tend to corrupt a child or young person into whose hands it might fall." Although the act had a sunset clause , in 1969 the Act was made permanent, and continues to be in force today, represented, for example, in the Royal Mail prohibition against mailing horror comics and the matrices used to print them. During
2415-466: A slightly different focus, providing their girl readers with articles about, and photographs of, pop stars and television / film actors, plus more general articles about teenage life, whilst throwing in a few comic strips for good measure. For boys there were, historically, similar publications based upon soccer, such as Shoot! , which featured non-fiction picture articles about popular footballers, league clubs, and general football news, accompanied by
2520-635: A trend which the introduction of colour television to Britain during 1969 set in stone. In an effort to counter the trend, many publishers switched the focus of their comics to television-related characters. The television shows of Gerry Anderson , such as Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons , had begun this in the mid-1960s with the launch of tie-in comics such as TV Century 21 and Lady Penelope , which included strips related to Anderson's TV shows (as well as other popular programs of
2625-476: A zany but tight storyline, less emphasis on close-ups of facial expressions, but retaining the essentials needed to put over a character's own personality traits. The strip was popular enough that it survived the changes of 1969, and continued to appear in the new Smash! . When the strip was eventually dropped, Bad Penny herself still continued to appear, making occasional appearances in Baxendale's The Swots and
2730-470: Is a periodical published in the United Kingdom that contains comic strips . It is generally referred to as a comic or a comic magazine , and historically as a comic paper . As of 2014, the three longest-running comics of all time were all British. British comics are usually comics anthologies which are typically aimed at children, and are published weekly, although some are also published on
2835-631: The Judge Dredd Megazine have seen the release of more adaptations and trade paperbacks , including complete reprint collections of the entire runs of Judge Dredd , Strontium Dog and Nemesis the Warlock . Starting in 2006 the Megazine began a regular small press section which usually features an article on a title by Matthew Badham or David Baillie and a small press story. While British companies and creators have helped create
2940-476: The Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955 . The act prohibited "any book, magazine or other like work which is of a kind likely to fall into the hands of children or young persons and consists wholly or mainly of stories told in pictures (with or without the addition of written matter), being stories portraying (a) the commission of crimes; or (b) acts of violence or cruelty; or (c) incidents of
3045-509: The House of Commons . As a result, and despite the comics' popularity, IPC decided to drastically tone down the content after 36 issues, and issue 37 was pulped. When it returned to newsstands it was far less violent, which neutered the comic's appeal. The title quickly declined and was merged with Battle . Action's position as the UK's most popular title was taken over by 2000 AD , a science-fiction comic launched in 1977 by IPC. Created as
3150-646: The Hulk and DC Comics ' Batman — into its lineup, prompting Wham! to do the same (with the Fantastic Four ) shortly thereafter. Odhams branded the two titles, and three more launched in quick succession — all heavily featuring Marvel reprints — as part of the Power Comics line, a gimmick dreamed up by Odhams to unify their five titles under a common banner ( Smash! became a Power Comic with issue #44, published 3 December 1966). The Power Comics line
3255-540: The Hulk and the Black Knight , and wholly original strips like Night Raven . They also began producing television-based material, initially with Doctor Who Weekly , launched in 1979. In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, the underground comics movement inspired two new comics in the UK: Oz and Nasty Tales were launched with the underground premise of counter-culture rebellion. Oz notoriously featured
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3360-631: The United States for Fiction House 's Jumbo Comics , thus exporting the character back to her country of origin. Beginning in the 1940s, the available American comics were supplemented by a variety of black-and-white reprints of Fawcett's Captain Marvel , characters such as Sheena, Mandrake the Magician , The Phantom , and Marvel Comics ' 1950s monster comics. Several reprint companies were involved in this repackaging American material for
3465-508: The ZX Spectrum , mainly used for gaming, became available from 1980). Although new comics titles were launched in this period, none seemed to find a sustainable audience. Notable comics of the period included Deadline , Toxic! , Crisis , and Revolver . Deadline was conceived by Steve Dillon and Brett Ewins , and mixed original strips with reprints of U.S. strips, notably Love & Rockets , and articles and interviews on
3570-556: The 1930s – and through really to the 1950s and 60s – these comics were almost the only entertainment available to children." In 1954, Tiger comics introduced Roy of the Rovers , the hugely popular football based strip recounting the life of Roy Race and the team he played for, Melchester Rovers . The stock media phrase "real 'Roy of the Rovers' stuff" is often used by football writers, commentators and fans when describing displays of great skill, or surprising results that go against
3675-516: The 1950s and 1960s, the most popular comic for older age-group boys was Eagle published by Hulton Press . Eagle was published in a more expensive format, and was a gravure-printed weekly, with regular sales of nearly one million. (This format was used originally by Mickey Mouse Weekly during the 1930s.) Eagle 's success saw a number of comics launched in a similar format — TV Century 21 , Look and Learn and TV Comic being notable examples. Comics published in this format were known in
3780-422: The 1950s, and was the brother of Reg Parlett , one of the top artists for Amalgamated Press . Brian's Brain by Bert Vandeput and later Barrie Mitchell Featuring two schoolboys: the eponymous Brian Kingsley and his friend Duffy Rolls. Brian possesses an electronic brain resembling a human skull which he carries about in a box. It can communicate with him telepathically, glowing when active; and it can control
3885-474: The 1960s continued in that format into the 1970s; and others, such as Diana and Judy , changed to become slicks. They found themselves in the same market as teenage titles for girls such as Boyfriend and Blue Jeans , which had changed their content and were featuring mainly product-related articles and photo comics . In 1972 , Marvel set up a publishing arm in the UK, Marvel UK , reprinting American superhero strips. These proved extremely popular, and
3990-567: The Blots as a new member of the Blots. As had happened in Wham! , artists such as Mike Lacey were commissioned from time to time to "ghost" Baxendale's style. The Swots and the Blots was one of these. The strip's origins lay in Baxendale's classroom-based strip The Tiddlers , which had then been running for two years in Wham! (and which continued in Pow! when it merged with Wham in 1968, where it
4095-599: The Blots reached a new standard of excellence when Baxendale began drawing it for the new-look Smash! from March 1969, but even during the Odhams years, it had wit and a sense of style. In Baxendale's hands, it had notable similarities to his earlier classroom-based strip, The Bash Street Kids , in The Beano . Subtitled The Rottenest Crook in the World , Grimly Feendish featured the most popular character from Wham! 's Eagle-Eye, Junior Spy . Feendish's ghoulish appearance
4200-405: The British independent music scene of the time. Tank Girl was its most notable strip. Crisis was published by Fleetway Publications , a company formed from IPC's comics holdings. It was aimed at readers who had outgrown 2000 AD , and featured first works by Garth Ennis and Sean Phillips amongst others. One publication of that period did find an audience. Viz began life in 1979 as
4305-578: The British market, notably L. Miller & Son , the Arnold Book Company , Alan Class Comics , and the importer/distributor/publisher Thorpe & Porter . High Holborn High Holborn ( / ˈ h oʊ b ər n / HOH -bərn ) is a street in Holborn and Farringdon Without , Central London , which forms a part of the A40 route from London to Fishguard . It starts in the west at
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4410-542: The British postal service, the Royal Mail , released a set of stamps depicting characters and series from British comics. The collection featured The Beano , The Dandy , Eagle , The Topper , Roy of the Rovers , Bunty , Buster , Valiant , Twinkle and 2000 AD . In the 19th century, story papers (containing illustrated text stories), known as " penny dreadfuls " from their cover price, served as entertainment for British children. Full of close-printed text with few illustrations, they were essentially no different from
4515-871: The Crypt and The Vault of Horror were printed in London and Leicester (by companies like Arnold Book Company ) and sold in "small back-street newsagents." The ensuing outcry was heard in Parliament , and at the urging of the Most Reverend Geoffrey Fisher , the Archbishop of Canterbury , Major Gwilym Lloyd George , the Home Secretary and Minister of Welsh Affairs , and the National Union of Teachers , Parliament passed
4620-676: The Fleetway imprint, continued to appear every year. The final annual, cover-dated 1976, was published in the autumn of 1975. There were also two 96-page Holiday Specials, published in 1969 and 1970, and a Valiant and Smash! Holiday Special in 1971. A notable feature of the Odhams years was how few advertisements Smash! carried. There were occasional quarter-page inserts, mainly advertising foreign postage stamps for stamp collectors , or Subbuteo table-football, but they were few and far between, and their combined total didn't usually exceed one page per issue. Reflecting its financial problems,
4725-417: The Seas by Ken Reid ; Space Jinx by Brian Lewis ; The Tellybugs by Walter Thorburn and George Parlett, with later contributions by Cyril Price; and The Swots and the Blots , initially by Mike Lacey. The Man From B.U.N.G.L.E. was a spoof of the popular TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. , and like Grimly Feendish was a spin-off from Baxendale's Eagle-Eye, Junior Spy strip in Wham! ). The strip
4830-457: The Swots and the Blots. Smash! launched with the same format as the early issues of Wham! , namely 24 pages per issue, four of which were in colour, but it was printed on lower-quality paper than Wham! The Swots and the Blots by Mike Lacey and later by Leo Baxendale About two rival gangs — the Swots and the Blots — vying to outwit each other at Pond Road School, with "Teach" caught in
4935-489: The UK collective Sweatdrop Studios , who have also contributed to other British-based efforts like ILYA 's Mammoth Book of Best New Manga and MangaQuake . Creators involved in those collections who have gone on to do several manga style graphic novels include British based Japanese creators such as Chie Kutsuwada and Michiru Morikawa, as well as, conversely, a British writer based in Japan, Sean Michael Wilson. Released at
5040-507: The US by Marvel Comics and DC Comics . In late 1968, Smash! absorbed its sister titles Pow! and Fantastic , thereby becoming the last surviving Power Comics title. In March 1969 Smash! underwent a major relaunch, and thereafter featured solely British content: a mixture of humour, sporting and adventure strips. A further relaunch in 1970 was almost as extensive, with a number of new strips introduced and an equal number cancelled. Smash!
5145-484: The United Kingdom's top-selling magazines. Beginning in 2000, the British market arrested its long decline. However, there is no sign of any great growth in circulation for the few remaining titles, and no sign of any new launches from mainstream publishers into the comics arena. An ever-increasing number of small press and fanzine titles are being produced, such as Solar Wind or FutureQuake , aided by
5250-483: The Victorian and early 20th-century weeklies. Comic strips—stories told primarily in strip cartoon form, rather than as a written narrative with illustrations—emerged only slowly. Scottish-born newspaper proprietor James Henderson began publishing Funny Folks in 1874. Writer Denis Gifford considered Funny Folks to be the first British comic , though at first it tackled topical and political subjects along
5355-470: The actions of animals if they are within a few yards, which is the limit of its brain-wave transmissions. The Ghost Patrol by Gerry Embleton [reprinted from Swift ] Originally set in Crete during World War II , about Sgt. Joe Trimm and a squad of British soldiers who find a time travel machine made by aliens. They visit several eras, along the way capturing evil U-boat Commander Erhart and earning
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#17328008783145460-465: The additional pages. In 1966 the initial success of Wham! (which had launched in 1964 and quickly built up strong circulation figures) encouraged Odhams' London management to publish a second title, conceived by Alf Wallace (Managing Editor of Odhams' juveniles – Eagle , Swift and Boys' World ) and Albert Cosser. Leo Baxendale , who had created Wham! for Odhams in 1964, was too heavily embroiled with ongoing production on it, providing much of
5565-468: The art for each issue, so had little time for anything else. Also, Baxendale was then still working at long range from Dundee , Scotland ( DC Thomson Ltd, Baxendale's former employers, were based in Dundee). Accordingly, it was Alf Wallace and Albert Cosser (soon to be known to their young audience as Alf and Cos) who determined the initial format of Smash! They also recruited the artists who would draw
5670-425: The authenticity of museum artifacts, which leads to deadly danger every week. It debuted with issue #8 (26 Mar. 1966) Moon Madness by Alf Wallace and Brian Lewis Adventure strip where professor John Silverlight combats a bizarre monster awakened by a Russian space probe. It debuted with issue #9 (2 Apr. 1966) and canceled with issue #15 (16 May 1966). Charlie's Choice by Brian Lewis Humour strip about
5775-487: The bestselling comics in the UK have historically been native products, American comic books and Japanese manga are also popular. The description comics derived from the names of popular titles such as Comic Cuts , and from the fact that in the beginning all the titles presented only comical (i.e. humorous) content. British comics typically differ from the American comic book . Although historically they shared
5880-489: The brilliance of Reid's sea-faring twit. Space Jinx was replaced in issue #16 (21 May 1966) by The Incredible Hulk reprints; Lewis soon returned with Charlie's Choice , about a boy with a magic television set who can bring the characters in the programmes out from the TV screen into his world. It was a device for featuring, as guest stars in the strip each week, an assortment of popular TV stars. The strip's debut, for instance, featured Robert Vaughn and David McCallum of
5985-580: The cheapness and increasingly professional appearance of desktop publishing programs. It is from this scene that the UK's new talents now tend to emerge (e.g. Al Ewing , Henry Flint or Simon Spurrier ). The English musician Peter Gabriel issued in 2000 The Story of OVO which was released in a CD-booklet-shaped comic book as part of the CD edition with the title " OVO The Millennium Show ". The 2000 Millennium Dome Show based on it. After they were purchased by Rebellion Developments , both 2000 AD and
6090-604: The children's character Rupert the Bear performing sexual acts. Both magazines were tried at the Old Bailey under the Obscene Publications Act because of their content. The Oz defendants were convicted, although the conviction was overturned on appeal. The Nasty Tales defendants were cautioned. However, both these comics ceased publication soon after their trial, as much due to the social changes at
6195-453: The comic was revamped, and published its final issue on its 75th anniversary in 2012. The BeanoMAX (which also started in 2007) also borrowed some of Toxic' s features. That title was then replaced by The 100% Official Dennis the Menace and Gnasher Megazine , which was later renamed Epic before ending in 2019. The DFC launched at the end of May 2008 drawing together creators from
6300-411: The crossfire. The Man From B.U.N.G.L.E. by Leo Baxendale A spoof of the popular TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. . Baxendale drew the first few, which appeared as large single illustrations on the front cover of some early issues, after which Mike Lacey took over. Bad Penny by Leo Baxendale About a mischievous young girl. The title logo featured a portrait of Penny and an illustration of
6405-643: The different approach to comics writing from the other side of the Atlantic . Sheena, Queen of the Jungle — a female version of Tarzan (with an element of H. Rider Haggard 's " She who must be obeyed" – She... Na!) — was licensed from the Eisner & Iger studio for a British/Australasian tabloid , Wags , in 1937. The success of this character led to the Sheena stories being repackaged for publication in
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#17328008783146510-469: The early issues, as it was plain that Baxendale was fully occupied with the art for Wham! Hence Baxendale's initial contribution to Smash! was limited to providing a list of titles and situations for the humour strips, together with brief written scenarios (script ideas for the individual weekly issues), which he gave to Wallace to be farmed-out to other artists. The Swots and The Blots was one of these. Ironically, Baxendale's strips would eventually become
6615-454: The eastern end of St Giles High Street and runs past the Kingsway and Southampton Row , becoming Holborn at its eastern junction with Gray's Inn Road . The western stretch, as far as Drury Lane , was formerly known as Broad Street. On High Holborn, traffic (including cycles and buses) flows one-way westbound from its junction with Drake Street to its western end, and flows both ways for
6720-421: The end of the counter-culture movement as any effect of the court cases. These were always adult magazines, not aimed at the mainstream children's market. In the mid-1970s, British comics became more action-oriented. The first such title to be launched was Warlord in 1974 . Published by DC Thomson , it proved to be a success, and led to its then-rival, IPC Magazines Ltd , producing Battle Picture Weekly ,
6825-562: The era). Polystyle Publications already published a TV-related comic for young children called TV Comic , and in 1971 moved into the older market with Countdown (later retitled TV Action ). The teenage market saw Look-in magazine feature strips solely based on popular television programs. Another strand of the reaction to television was the launch of comics focused entirely on association football (a sport as popular as television amongst boys), with titles such as Shoot and Scorcher and Score . Those comics that didn't compete with
6930-471: The first British graphic novel. In 1982 Dez Skinn launched Warrior , possibly the most notable comic of the period, as it contained both the Marvelman and V for Vendetta strips, by Alan Moore . Warrior was a British equivalent of Heavy Metal magazine. Marvelman was a Captain Marvel clone that Skinn acquired, although the legality of that acquisition has been questioned. In Moore's hands,
7035-401: The first hundred issues include Moon Madness by Alf Wallace with art by Brian Lewis , and The Legend Testers by Jordi Bernet. The Rubber Man by Ken Mennell, drawn by Alfredo Marculeta, also had some adventure elements, but was essentially a superhero strip with the central character 'borrowed' from Marvel's Fantastic Four . British comics Modern ethnicities A British comic
7140-490: The friendship of a policeman from the future, Cornelius Kerrigan. Originally published in Swift in 1962 under the title Phantom Patrol . Danger Mouse Humour strip about a mouse secret agent. It debuted with issue #3 (19 Feb. 1966). The Legend Testers by Jordi Bernet Science fiction adventure strip about two time travelers from the future — Rollo Stones and Danny Charters — assigned to various points in history to test
7245-501: The late 1930s, which thrived during the Second World War . Their successful mix of irreverence and slapstick led to many similar titles, notably Buster , Topper and Beezer . However, the originators of this format have outlasted all rivals, and The Beano is still published today. The problem which now faces society in the trade that has sprung up of presenting sadism, crime, lust, physical monstrosity, and horror to
7350-1036: The market for collected volumes there have, with a few exceptions like Raymond Briggs , been very few British original graphic novels published. Briggs himself has said "On the Continent, graphic novels have been as accepted as films or books for many years, but England has had a snobby attitude towards them. They've always been seen as something just for children". However, thanks to the strong sales for Briggs' Ethel and Ernest , and Jimmy Corrigan winning The Guardian ' s best first novel award, publishers have started expanding into this area. Random House UK's imprint Jonathan Cape has tripled its graphic novel output and Random House has also established Tanoshimi to publish manga. Other publishers have also been increasing their output, which, as well as producing original works like Alice in Sunderland , have also been included adaptations of works of literature. There are
7455-410: The odds, in reference to the dramatic storylines that were the strip's trademark. Other comics such as Eagle , Valiant , Warrior , Viz and 2000 AD also flourished. Some comics, such as Judge Dredd and other 2000 AD titles, have been published in a tabloid form. Underground comics and "small press" titles have also appeared in the UK, notably Oz and Escape Magazine . While
7560-415: The popularity of television began to close down, merging with the few survivors. In the 1970s very few boys' comics in the "slick" format were launched, although Polystyle's Countdown was one exception, launching in 1971 with content similar to TV21 (which had disappeared by then) and TV Comic . Vulcan , a reprint title, was another, in 1976. Girls' titles which had launched in the slick format in
7665-430: The process alarming IPC's management. Reid's The Queen of the Seas was a masterpiece of comic artistry. Many readers failed to understand (amongst many things in the strip that went over their heads) that the two main characters were drawn in the likeness of comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy , and that the strip's humour was based on their movies. Perhaps too intelligent for its target audience – its disappearance
7770-480: The publishing giant Reed International . The final issue of Smash! was published on 3 April 1971; soon after on 10 April it was merged with the IPC title Valiant , forming Valiant and Smash! . Ten Smash! Annuals were published in hardback, beginning with the 1967 Annual (published in 1966). These appeared every autumn. Even after the magazine's absorption by Valiant , the Smash! annual, published mainly under
7875-475: The reader). Hence by the mid 20th Century it was being marketed exclusively towards children. Historically, strips were of one or two pages in length, with a single issue of a comic containing upwards of a dozen separate strips, featuring different characters. In more recent times, strips have become longer and have tended to continue over a number of issues and periods of time. Whilst some comics contained only strips, other publications such as Jackie have had
7980-432: The recurring character, was a working-class fellow who got up to various forms of mischief and often suffered for it. In 1890 two more comic magazines debuted before the British public, Comic Cuts and Illustrated Chips , both published by Amalgamated Press . These magazines notoriously reprinted British and American material, previously published in newspapers and magazines, without permission. The success of these comics
8085-410: The relaunched comic under IPC Magazines carried a significantly greater amount of advertising. One obvious change was the back cover (the only in-colour page apart from the front cover), which gradually began to carry colourful full-page advertisements. On the inside pages, too, there was a much more noticeable quantity of adverts: each issue typically carried four full-page ads, plus two half-page ads. It
8190-616: The remainder. The nearest London Underground stations are Tottenham Court Road , Holborn , and Chancery Lane , all on the Central line which runs beneath High Holborn. Landmarks along High Holborn include the Cittie of Yorke , at no. 22, and the Embassy of Cuba , at no. 167. The street was a "Feature site" for introduction of the Camden bench . High Holborn is the highest point in
8295-430: The same format size, based on a sheet of 30 x 22 inch imperial paper , folded, British comics have moved away from this size, adopting a standard magazine size. Until that point, the British comic was also usually printed on newsprint, with black or a dark red used as the dark colour and the four colour process used on the cover. The Beano and The Dandy both switched to an all-colour format in 1993. Originally aimed at
8400-412: The same lines as Punch . The magazine was heavily illustrated, with cartoons by John Proctor , known as Puck, among others, and benefitted from innovations in the use of cheap paper and photographic printing. Ally Sloper's Half Holiday (1884) is regarded as the first comic strip magazine to feature a recurring character (Ally Sloper). This strip cost one penny and was designed for adults. Ally,
8505-400: The semi-literate working class (in that it replaced the text-based stories of the story papers with picture-based stories, which were less challenging for a poorly educated readership), the comic gradually came to be seen as childish (in part because, due to gradual improvements in public education, children were eventually the only remaining market for a format designed to be unchallenging for
8610-503: The small press and manga, as well as figures from mainstream British comics and other fields, including author Philip Pullman . As it transpired, it didn't make it to its first birthday, ending with issue 43. A new more successful comic, however, The Phoenix , began in January 2012, a successor to The DFC which has already reached 500 issues. Starting in May 2023, Rebellion published
8715-765: The start of the 21st century was Toxic , a comic which mixed comic strips alongside game reviews and other articles. Beginning in 2002, this comic proved very successful and is still running. Its influence can be felt on other comics as well most notably when The Dandy , Britain's longest-running comic at the time, became the Dandy Xtreme in August 2007; it borrowed many of the features prevalent in Toxic , mixing articles alongside comic strips. However, The Dandy eventually moved away with this strategy in October 2010, when
8820-641: The strip became an "adult" style superhero , and was later reprinted, with the story continued, in an American full-color comic, with the name changed from "Marvelman" to "Miracleman" to avoid any lawsuits that Marvel Comics may have considered. Eventually, Warrior succumbed to copyright issues. Adult comics also witnessed a slight resurgence with Pssst! , an attempt to market a French-style monthly bande dessinée , and Escape magazine, published by Paul Gravett , former Pssst! promotions man. Escape featured early work from Eddie Campbell and Paul Grist , amongst others. Neither comic managed to survive in
8925-489: The subsidiary companies brought together to form IPC, including Fleetway Publications and Odhams Press . Odhams' comics line was produced in London from 64 Long Acre , overseen by managing editor Alfred Wallace. Following the initial success of the anarchic humour comic Wham! in 1964, Smash! was launched (with a cover price of 7d for 24 pages) on 5 February 1966 following a similar model. Early on, Smash! successfully integrated superhero strips — Marvel Comics '
9030-438: The surviving titles published by IPC, Fleetway, and DC Thomson were merged into each other in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the popularity of comics waned further in response to a surge in the popularity of television (a popularity which received another major boost from the late 1970s onward as domestic videocassette recorders became available), and due to the popularity of video games (as inexpensive home computers such as
9135-400: The top-rated secret agent show The Man From U.N.C.L.E. , maximising their appearance by splashing them across the front cover. The strip sought to capitalise on the enormous popularity of television — a popularity which was seriously harming comics sales. The hope was that by bringing popular television stars into Smash! 's pages, this would make TV's growing popularity work for the comic –
9240-441: The trade as "slicks." At the end of the 1960s, these comics moved away from gravure printing, preferring offset litho due to cost considerations arising from decreasing readership. However, the boys' adventure comic was still popular, and titles such as Valiant and Tiger , published by IPC Magazines , saw new adventure heroes become stars, including Roy of the Rovers who would eventually gain his own title. Odhams Press
9345-456: The vagaries of the comics market, Escape beset by lack of publisher interest. During this period a number of smaller publishers were formed to provide inventive publications appealing to niche markets. Congress Press was one of these companies, releasing titles such as Birthrite , Heaven & Hell and a graphic novel, Spookhouse . Other small publishers of the era included Harrier Comics (1984–1989) and Acme Press (1986–1995). Most of
9450-592: The young is an urgent and a grave one. In the early 1950s, "lurid American 'crime' and 'horror comics' reached Britain", prompting what in retrospect has been characterised as a moral panic . Copies of Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror , which arrived as ballast in ships from the United States, were first only available in the "environs of the great ports of Liverpool , Manchester , Belfast and London", but by "using blocks made from imported American matrices ", British versions of Tales from
9555-426: Was a company that mainly printed (adventure-oriented) new material; it also reprinted American Marvel Comics material in its Power Comics line, which included the titles Smash! and Fantastic . By 1970 the British comics market was in a long-term decline, as comics lost popularity in the face of the rise of other popular pastimes for children. Initially, the challenge was the rising popularity of television ,
9660-419: Was a great loss to the comic. Lewis' Space Jinx was the first and only character to hold the coveted colour centre pages of Smash! . It is unclear why Alf and Cos chose this deeply unfunny strip for what must have been considered the pride of place in the new comic. Space Jinx was primarily another Jonah (a strip by Ken Reid which had run in The Beano ), except that it could not hold its own against
9765-537: Was a noticeable feature of the relaunch that the comic now expanded to 40 pages, in order to cope with the need to carry an extra four pages of advertising in each issue. This was a potentially significant new strategy and a major change of policy. No longer did the profitability of the comic rest exclusively with the income derived from its sales figures. That sales income was now supplemented by advertising revenue, and without even having to sacrifice any significant amount of page space, nor cancel any strips, thanks to adding
9870-469: Was aimed at boys in a slightly older age group, lasted from 1879 to 1967. There has been a continuous tradition, since the 1950s, of black and white comics, published in a smaller page size format, many of them war titles such as Air Ace , inspiring youngsters with tales of the exploits of the army , navy and Royal Air Force , mainly in the two world wars . There have also been some romance titles and some westerns in this format. On 19 March 2012,
9975-471: Was based on Uncle Fester from the American television series The Addams Family (and, presumably, on Charles Addams 's illustrations from which the TV series was derived). At one point, the strip occupied a prestigious position as the full-colour back cover feature each week, and it survived throughout the entire run of 162 issues published by Odhams (even though, after giving up its back-cover status, it
10080-557: Was combined with Ron Spencer's The Dolls of St Dominics to become The Tiddlers and The Dolls ). In fact The Swots and the Blots was a direct continuation of The Tiddlers , with only a change of title. The characters (i.e. "Teach" and the Blots), the school buildings, and the situations, all were largely as they had been in The Tiddlers . The only difference was the addition of the Swots, so that Teach now had an ally. The Swots and
10185-483: Was featured on the cover of Smash! fourteen times in the first 18 issues. Bad Penny had some similarities with Baxendale's earlier Minnie the Minx character in The Beano . When Baxendale had been drawing Minnie the Minx , he had concentrated on experimenting with facial expressions and character traits. By the time he began working on Bad Penny his drawing style had matured, with an equal concentration on developing
10290-473: Was now published out of 189 High Holborn ; later moving to Fleetway House on nearby Farringdon Road . Major changes of editorial policy occurred in 1969 for financial reasons: on 15 March of that year Smash! was relaunched without its American superhero strips. Further changes followed during the course of 1969, and then a second relaunch at the start of 1970, when IPC was taken over by Albert Edwin Reed to form
10395-501: Was published under a three-man editorial team known as Alf, Bart, and Cos. "Alf" (Alfred Wallace) was the managing editor, and "Cos" (Albert Cosser) was the editor directly responsible for Smash! Odhams comics titles faced their first serious crisis in May 1967. The editorial page warned readers in issue #68 (20 May 1967) that Smash! , initially printed by St. Clements Press Ltd of London, had to find new printers within one month, or face closure. As it turned out, Odhams were able to sign
10500-493: Was relaunched, this time including photo comics, but still with Dan Dare as the lead story. The comic moved it from the front page to the centre pages to allow a more magazine-style cover. In 1978 The Adventures of Luther Arkwright by Bryan Talbot began serialisation in Near Myths (and continued in other comics after that title folded). Luther Arkwright was later collected as a graphic novel , and has been called
10605-541: Was rife, with magazines profiting from competitors' successes under a few cosmetic name changes. Apart from action and historical stories, there was also a fashion for horror and the supernatural, with epics like Varney the Vampire running for years. Horror, in particular, contributed to the epithet "penny dreadful". Stories featuring criminals such as 'Spring-Heeled Jack', pirates, highwaymen (especially Dick Turpin), and detectives (including Sexton Blake) dominated decades of
10710-733: Was sized 9.75" × 12" (#1–162) and 9.25" × 12" (#163–257), and had a four-colour cover and black-and-white interior. Smash! was owned by the International Publishing Corporation (IPC), a company formed in 1963 – through a series of corporate mergers – by Cecil Harmsworth King , chairman of the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Pictorial (now the Sunday Mirror ). All the comics owned by it were published by one or other of
10815-402: Was sometimes ignominiously reduced to only a quarter-page "filler"). Mac's Percy's Pets was often a half-page feature; it proved popular enough that it made sporadic reappearances in the new Smash! after March 1969. The Nervs was the most bizarre of the Odhams humour strips, depicting a group of little characters inhabiting a schoolboy called Fatty: the strip shows them running Fatty like
10920-474: Was such that Amalgamated's owner, Alfred Harmsworth, was able to launch the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail newspapers on the profits. Comics were also published as accompaniments to women's magazines at the end of the century. Jungle Jinks, which held the honor of being the longest running British comic until 1954, first appeared in 1898 as a supplement to Home Chat; drawn by Mabel F. Taylor , it
11025-503: Was the first anthropomorphic animal British comic. Over the next thirty years or so, comic publishers saw the juvenile market as the most profitable, and thus geared their publications accordingly, so that by 1914 most comics were standalone booklets aimed at eight- to twelve-year-olds. The interwar period is notable mainly for the publication of annuals by Eagle Press, and also the emergence of D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd . D. C. Thomson launched both The Beano and The Dandy in
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